How to Spot Hot Selling Items For Ebay

I love talking about this subject! You want to know why?
Because keeping up with trends requires you to be super sassy, and always keep your finger on the pulse of
eBay, and what buyers want.

It's all a game in the world of eBay selling and the
name of the game is taking chances on items that you think will be a hot item to sell to your niche market.

While taking a chance is important, you also need to conduct as much market research as possible instead of
blindly looking for what to sell on eBay to avoid failure.

You might not find this to be easy, but successful eBay sellers do their homework.

There are a lot of trends that grew exponentially. Some examples off the top of my head are the iPods, Crocs,
Facebook, Bowflex, Twilight books, and yes even our very own eBay.

So is there a secret to identifying a trend before having a person, that's not even involved in business, tell
us of one? The answer is yes.

There are companies that spend millions of dollars a year to identify what the market desires, even in just
about every industry.

And we are going to tap into those reports. The goal is to find the 2% penetration of the product or service and
to take a gamble on its successes.

I'm not sure if you have read Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, but in this book he tries to nail down
essentially the same thing.

What makes a product turn into a trend and what doesn't?

This is how people become - literally - millionaires overnight.

When we look at our eBay stores and our niche products, we have to examine who we believe has the best
information on the items that could become a hot selling item.

But wouldn't it be nice to know those products before the consumer reports come out that everyone is reading?
This is why we need to go directly to the source!

Since I love giving examples, I'm going to explain what I mean by identifying a hot selling item by going
directly to a source.

Let's say that I sell couches in my eBay store - all sorts of couches. I know that I have to compete with the
major furniture stores across the country, as well as other PowerSellers in eBay.

How am I going to know what the next hot selling couch will be?

And if you don't think that couches can be a hot selling item, remember the futon sales around 1999 - they
absolutely skyrocketed! I am going to find what the next hottest type of couch for sale by going to the source.

Do you think I'm meaning that I am going to go to the source of the market? Absolutely not. I am going to the
source of the demand.

The people that I am going to be selling to! Who knows better than what people want than my customers?

This is exactly what the big players in business do. A lot of them do this by surveys, but I think that is still
a weak way to go about it. You have to be a bulldog.

A person like you that is going to spot a trend is going to do it through finding the 2% penetration.

I would have to go to large groups of people and ask their directors or leaders what they need and want. After I
find out those two things; what they need and what they want, I start my research.

I would go after those companies that are making products that cover those two criteria.
The company that has a successful product that combines and delivers that product is the trend.

I hope you get this because it is so important. They way that the futon companies successfully became a hot
trend is because they dominated one niche which grew - college dorms.